BY MONIFA THOMAS Health Reporter/mjthomas@suntimes.com
Chicago Sun-Times, Wednesday, December 31, 2008 — It's easier for men to transmit HIV to women than previously thought, a Northwestern University study has found.
It's long been thought that the lining of the vaginal tract was a barrier to HIV transmission, that the virus was too large to penetrate healthy genital tissue. Instead, scientists thought the virus spread to the immune system through breaks in the skin or through the thin layer of cells lining a woman's cervical canal.
But the new research from Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine has shown that the vaginal tract is vulnerable to HIV infection in areas where skin cells are shed.
"This is an unexpected and important result," lead researcher Thomas Hope said. "Until now, science has really had no idea about the details of how sexual transmission of HIV actually works."
The findings were reported at a cell biology conference in San Francisco.
Hope, a professor of cell and molecular biology, and his research team used fluorescent tags to track the movement of HIV in animals and in human tissue removed from hysterectomy patients. They found that the shedding of skin cells in the vaginal tract provided an easy opportunity for HIV to invade, because skin cells are not as tightly bound as they normally would be.
The findings could pave the way for new microbicides and vaccines to protect against HIV, Hope said.
Home |